1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a guide rail for a carriage with a suspended partition or similar object that hangs from the carriage. The rail has a hollow box-shaped section with a guide slot for the passage of a support element that is connected with the partition, and the hollow section includes U-shaped sections oriented in mirror symmetry to each other on either side of the guide slot. The U-webs of the sections form the outer boundary of the hollow section and the U-legs of the sections point toward one another so that two facing U-legs define a connection section for the connection of the rail to a ceiling structure or similar structure, and two facing U-legs border the guide slot.
2. Background Information
German Patent No. 40 41 925 C1 describes a rail of the type described above, in which a carriage designated as a support and guide element is guided in the rail, which carriage consists essentially of a square support roller receptacle that has support rollers on each side, so that the support rollers of the support and guide elements run on the bearing surfaces of the two facing U-legs that define the guide slot.
The object of a project developed internally by the applicant is also a rail of the type described above, in which the individual partition is suspended on two carriages that are at some distance from one another, whereby each carriage has at least one support roller, whereby the support roller of the one carriage is supported on the bearing surface of the one U-leg that borders the guide slot, and an additional support roller of the other carriage is supported on the bearing surface of the other, facing U-leg that borders the guide slot.
One feature that the rails described above have in common is that they surround the carriage--with the exception of the guide slot necessary for the passage of the support element for the partition--on all sides. For purposes of inspection and repair, however, it is desirable to have access to the carriage without having to disconnect the entire train of partitions or to remove a number of partitions.
One potential solution to this problem is disclosed by the applicants' "HSW-G Installation Instructions," which instructions are included hereinbelow, and which refer to a guide rail as disclosed in the above mentioned German Patent No. 40 41 925 C1. In this case, as illustrated in Step 8 (see FIG. 9) of the installation instructions, there is an inspection piece that can be detached from the guide rail. The above mentioned inspection piece essentially consists of a complete partial segment of the rail, and can be removed from the rail after detachment from the ceiling structure. For centering between the inspection piece and the adjacent rail segments, there are guide grooves in the adjacent rail segments and matching guide tabs on the inspection piece that fit into the guide grooves. The guide grooves and the guide tabs are located in the vicinity of the connection to the ceiling structure. In practice, it has been found that even small misalignments of the inspection piece with respect to the adjacent rail segments can lead to disruptions when the carriage passes through the inspection piece. Since, as specified in the above referenced installation instructions, the rail that forms a guide channel for the carriage must be completely opened when the inspection piece is removed, it is necessary to jack up or to otherwise support the partition on the floor side when the carriage is moved into the vicinity of the inspection opening for inspection or repair, because, in this area, there is no longer any guidance for the support rollers of the carriage.